Mon, October 13, 2025
UEFA plans to extend deadline rules on multiclub ownership following Crystal Palace demotion dispute
European football’s governing body UEFA plans to provide clubs with more time to resolve multiclub ownership (MCO) issues from next season, following the outrage surrounding Crystal Palace being demoted from the Europa League to the Conference League due to American businessman John Textor previously holding shares in both Crystal Palace and Olympique Lyonnais.
Last summer, Crystal Palace was demoted from the Europa League to the Conference League as it was revealed that John Textor, an American businessman and the founder of Eagle Football Holdings, held shares in both Crystal Palace and Olympique Lyonnais (Lyon), which also qualified for the Europa League. Textor was also said to be a board member with influence over both clubs. Fellow businessman Woody Johnson bought Textor’s 44.9% stake in Crystal Palace for £190 million before this season’s competition commenced.
During Palace’s appeal, it argued that Textor did not have significant influence within the boardroom and that he was no longer part of the club. Palace also contended that UEFA’s approach lacked consistency, citing the case of Evangelos Marinakis -owner of Nottingham Forest and Olympiakos- who was reportedly able to place Forest into a blind trust after being informed of UEFA’s extended deadline to do so, a deadline Palace says it was not made aware of.
In a blind trust, the MCO gives up control of one of the football clubs by assigning their interest to a third party. Nottingham Forest replaced Crystal Palace in the Europa League.
Despite these arguments, Palace was unsuccessful in its appeal, and this could end up costing the club more than £20 million.
Now, UEFA will introduce a dual deadline. Clubs in contention for qualification the following season will still be required to raise any MCO issues to UEFA by 1 March, the deadline Palace failed to meet, but clubs will also be given more time during the end of the season to resolve further issues regarding multiple clubs under the same ownership group qualifying for competition.
As draws for the Europa League and Conference League will take place in June, the final deadline will be the start of that month.
Palace chairman Steve Parish previously described Palace’s demotion as one of the “greatest injustices that has ever happened in European football,” and many are likely to be frustrated that this rule change has been introduced in the aftermath of Palace’s demotion which remained intact.
